


Hallelujah

by UselessLesbianLaughter



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Happy Ending, SuperCorp, verbally described violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 01:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15523356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UselessLesbianLaughter/pseuds/UselessLesbianLaughter
Summary: Lena comes home late after getting attacked on the street. Kara helps her realize it wasn't her fault and that she doesn't deserve to be treated that way.





	Hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> This fic feels a bit incomplete but I couldn't figure out how to make it any better so I decided to post anyway. My first actual Supercorp fic.   
> Got the idea after watching Nanette on Netflix and relating heavily (definitely recommend it to everyone.)

 It wasn’t unusual for Lena to come home late. She spent many nights at her office, completely buried in work. The aberration was not that she was late, no. It was the blood she was desperately trying to wash off, locked in the bathroom, before Kara could notice, and the bruises she would cover with makeup as soon as possible.

 But Kara had already seen her. The trouble with dating an alien with superstrength is that you can’t really lock yourself away from them.

 She knocked first, of course. Her brow wrinkled out of worry, voice soft and sweet, not disguising the fear but trying to.

 “Lena, baby, you okay?”

 A few erratic and distressed breaths as Lena frantically tried to hurry up.

 “Just fine! I’ll be right out.”

 Lena Luthor was good at lying. She was exquisite at convincing people she was fine when she wasn’t. But the one person she could never lie to was her fiancée. Kara was not convinced.

 “Are you sure you’re fine?” the worry in her voice was growing.

 “Entirely.” A deep sigh.

 “Lena, I know something’s wrong. I’m opening the door now, okay?” Kara asked, waiting for a reply.

 Another deep sigh.

 “Okay.”

 Lena hung her head, hands resting on the sink with the water still flowing. Kara opened the door and stepped forward, stopping in her tracks immediately in shock as she saw her. It wasn’t an anomaly for an attempt to be made on Lena’s life but nothing like this. She’d never seen her so bruised and bloody, wincing in pain at every other movement, something broken in her eyes.

 She gathered herself eventually and closed the distance between them.

 “What happened?”

 “It doesn’t matter,” Lena said. Kara had a different opinion.

 “You can tell me. You know that, right? You can tell me anything. Lena, I…”

 “Look, it wasn’t just my quarterly assassination attempt. I don’t want to burden you with it.”

 “You’re never a burden.” Kara looked ready to cry. This was exactly what she’d wanted to avoid, this didn’t have to be painful for anyone else, especially Kara.

 She took a deep breath.

 “Some guy jumped me on the street. I really should’ve known better, you can’t trust this city anyway, I should’ve taken a cab or-”

 “It wasn’t your fault. I promise. If anything it was mine, I should’ve been there to protect you!” Kara exclaimed.

 “No. This isn’t your fault. He just… He recognized me. Not even as Lena Luthor. Apparently, I’m “that dyke with Supergirl”,” she shrugged and half-smiled despite the obvious sadness in her eyes.

 Kara had not expected that. To be very specific, that was the only thing she had not expected. It took her breath away but she wouldn’t let it show.

 “You know, I could still find that asshole and show him some justice,” she smiled weakly.

 Lena shook her head and almost chuckled, defeat evident in her eyes as she reached out for the soap bar again and winced as it made contact with her bruised skin. This was not the Lena Luthor- the strong, unbreakable, undefeatable woman- that Kara knew.

 “It doesn’t matter. It’s whatever. No use, either way.”

 “Don’t talk like that.”

 “Don’t talk like what? Kara, I just got what I deserved! _I_ decided to go public about dating you, _I_ decided to announce publicly I was a _dyke_ , _I_ was stupid enough to walk alone, at night. You get what you paid for.” Her eyes had glassed over, she’d closed down. Instead of defeat, her voice echoed like an empty, endless cave.

 “No one deserves to be treated like that. Especially not you,” Kara said, horrified at this point. Her mind was racing. How could Lena ever think of herself like that?

 “It’s just the price I pay for existing. No big deal,” Lena scoffed and got up, heading to the shower without another word. She didn’t bother taking her clothes off or regulating the water temperature, she just let the water rain down on her body until the initial blood and dirt had rubbed off.

 Kara was dumb-struck, her words a-plenty but all trapped behind the gates of her mind. She watched Lena close her eyes and face the faucet, unsure if she was crying, the water blending into one. She watched her peel off her wet clothes and step out, dry off with a towel and walk away, like a corpse, a shell of a woman. She didn’t dare get off the bathroom floor but by the thud she heard from the bedroom, she assumed Lena had gone to sleep.

 It wasn’t until half an hour later that she got off the floor, brushed her teeth, stared in the mirror, and headed to the bedroom herself. Sliding under the blankets, she said, “I love you,” just in case Lena wasn’t asleep yet, despite her closed eyes and deep breaths. She wasn’t.

 Morning came without a spectacle. Sunrays crept into the room, through the small slits in closed blinds, uninvited and silent. Lena woke up first, despite a meager hour or so of actual sleep. She got out of bed quietly, refusing to wake Kara. She got dressed, covered what she could with concealer, tried to blend a black eye with eyeshadow, didn’t bother with coffee. There was a coffee machine at L-Corp, the coffee was lousy but it would do. She didn’t want to think, she wanted to work.

 She wouldn’t walk again, especially not alone, despite the bright daylight. Why have a personal driver if you’re not going to use him, anyway?

 The whole building was unusually quiet. It would be filled with busy people and chatter in an hour but for now, it was unsettlingly quiet. Perfect. She could get to work immediately, without thinking, without feeling, without being. And she did.

 All day, Kara wanted to check on her. But Supergirl had a job to do and Supergirl had a city to protect and she couldn’t abandon that.

 Kara got home late. Lena was still absent. Worry suffocated her, she flew to L-Corp. Thankfully or not, Lena was in her office. She wasn’t all there, something was missing. Her movements were robotic, pre-programmed. She didn’t even notice when Kara barged into her office, only when she was standing at her desk did she look up.

 “What are you doing here?”

 “I was worried.”

 “There’s no reason to be. I won’t be that careless again,” she said, voice monotone, dismissive.

 “You weren’t being careless. You were walking down a street, a street you had every right to be on. It wasn’t your fault. Lena, talk to me, please,” Kara begged.

 “There’s nothing to talk about,” her eyes went back to the screen, fingers started typing again, unsure if they were actually spelling out coherent words. Her voice still echoed empty, unwavering, certain, but hollow.

 “I miss you,” Kara’s eyes watered. It was the last thing she thought to say, and honest. She missed her Lena. That was the first thing to break through the wall. Something cracked in glassed over eyes, something broke, shards falling and clattering at the bottom of her soul. Dull eyes replaced with broken ones, an empty voice replaced with a cracking one. Lena was there again, there and miserable.

 “Why won’t you just leave it alone?”

 “It’s eating you alive. Why won’t you let me help you?”

 “Because I don’t need your help. I don’t need anyone’s help. I don’t deserve your help.” She was slipping away again.

 “Lena, look at me, please,” Kara walked closer, bending her knees so she could be at eye-level with Lena. “Just let me help you. I love you. It hurts to see you suffer,” she brushed her hand over Lena’s cheek. A tear escaped Lena’s eye.

 “That’s just it. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want it to be over. I don’t want to remember. You don’t want me when I’m broken, I get it,” her voice broke at the end of the sentence.

 “Don’t say that! I always want you, to be with you. I just wish you’d let me help you. I wish you understood what happened wasn’t your fault. It’s not you that’s sick, it’s society. You’re not broken.”

 “If it’s that much of a crime to be different, they should’ve just taken me to the back pier and put a bullet in my head. Would’ve been more merciful.” Her eyes were flooding. She barely recognized her own voice. Kara took her hands in hers, full of assurance.

 “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

 “Of course there is. I’m a Luthor, I’m a lesbian, I’m-” she couldn’t finish, Kara stopped her.

 “And there’s nothing wrong with that. Okay? You’re also incredibly smart and generous and beautiful and so, _so_ loved. It’ll get better. It will take time but it will get better. You don’t need to earn the right to exist. You’re human, it’s your birthright. And you don’t need deserve pain for loving. And I love you so much and I hate him for hurting you and you have every right to hate him for what he did. You have every right to be angry, you have every right to be sad, and you deserve medical attention as much as anyone. You don’t owe it to anyone to take a beating, no one should be treated like that. And one day love will win, I promise you.”

 Lena wiped the tears off her face, chuckling as she did, embarrassed but comfortable.

 “I think I’m starting a charity,” she smiled.

 “That sounds like a great idea.”

 “For people like me. People like us. People in need. An LGBT charity. I want to help.”

 “That’s wonderful. But you should also learn to love yourself. Trust me, I know being different isn’t easy but accepting that you deserve the same rights as everyone else despite it is the best thing that could ever happen.”

 Lena huffed and smiled. Kara was right. They shared a gentle kiss, light, soft and sweet. Maybe it did get better, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm the feedback vampire, I'm starving as always, nurse me back to life with comments. I appreciate every comment so much, I swear to Sappho.


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